It's here, La Fiesta del Pueblo, the largest 2-day Latino festival in the Carolinas. It will take place this Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-30, at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh in the same indoor/outdoor exhibition spaces used last year, in and around the Jim Graham Building. Admission is $5, and admission to the soccer tournament in the Dorton Arena will be an additional $2.
Headliners include "hurricane" salseros Orquesta GarDel, Peruvian rocker Santino and punta/soca band Kazzabe. I'm working on my preview of the musical highlights, so check back later today!
UPDATEadded Friday night:
Buzz: I just got word from an alert tipster that Santino will be backed by Raleigh rockers Wrecking Season. (Thanks, Melinda!) I just checked out their myspace, and that's some sweet rockin' goodness! I can totally hear Santino with this, returning to his hard rocking roots with Peruvian hair band Fragil.
SANTINO performs Saturday 7pm and Sunday 4:30 pm
UPDATE added Sunday am:
Saturday headliners Orquesta GarDel really upped the ante, adding twists to their old arrangements and throwing a bolero into their set for vocalist Nelson Delgado. Pianist/keyboardist Eric Hirsh played around with new synth tones, adding celeste for example to "Boranda" (evoking memories of Charlie Palmieri's Alegre sessions). Some new, killer horn lines with bari sax jumped out at me on charts I've heard repeatedly. That was a real delight. Always giving us something new to listen to. The funk of "Eric's Timba" (still untitled) resounded with the old school dancers; it was great to see el pueblo dancing, mingling and having a good time.
La Tropa de Tierra Caliente--of Durham--have steadily improved their game as well since I saw them at last year's La Ley fest. This techno banda from the "hot regions" of Guerrero and Michoacan runs on valve trombones, synth tuba and aftershave. A male vocal trio harmonizes and bounces in a massive front line with the live brass, sandwiched by sythmeisters and backed by a lonely drumset on the back bandstand. Witness the energy:
With a quieter kind of attention, rapt crowds at the Cafe Teatro devoured the Colombian harp mastery of Pávelid Castañeda Sr., a real find at La Fiesta this year. (Brava to Fiesta programmer Margarita Correa-McAvoy who always manages to add new talent to the roster.)
A transplant to this area from Long Island with his own folk group Los Llaneros, Pávelid currently plays three days a week for afternoon tea at the Umstead in Cary. Pávelid is a long-time music educator and, if I'm not mistaken, the father of another amazing harpist who is making waves in the Latin jazz world: Edmar Castañeda. I heard Edmar play an unforgettable rendition of "Obsesion" with Cándido Camero and a Cuban ensemble led by Sonny Bravo at the NYC Blue Note in 2007. The manzana doesn't fall far from the tree! Pávelid did a one-man arrangement of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" (yes, the one made famous by Santana) that filled the senses. Colombian harp is a rare specialty in these parts, here's hoping we will hear him playing out in the Triangle more often.
Until I can get the full name of this 16-year-old musician in the Andean folk group Amerikantu, I'm going to dub him The Charango Kid. [His name is Jacob Cortez.] Big talent. His father Cesar Cortez plays guitar (far left) and the group is led by artist and musician David Sovero (center):
Sunday picks: 12:45 Mariachi Los Galleros, 1:30 Grupo Sarengue, 3:15 Bravo Norteño, 4:15 Kazzabe, 4:30 Santino.
Read his story--an Onda Carolina exclusive!--of how the song was written in 1998 about Cuban Olympian Javier Sotomayor, and how Kolve's band Mambo Compañeros developed from its beginnings on Norwegian television and remains one of Norway's leading salsa bands.
The first part of our conversation reads like an Abbot and Costello routine, so I've left the comedy of errors intact, as we both try to understand why we seem to be talking about completely different songs! In a sense, we were...
Kåre was just bidding dinner guests farewell in Trondheim as I called him Wednesday morning at 10:30 am Eastern Time (US):
Sylvia Pfeiffenberger: You’re on your way to a rehearsal, is it for Mambo Compañeros?
Kåre Kolve: Yes.
SP: How did you produce this song so quickly, and when did you start writing the Sotomayor Mambo?
KK: Why?
SP: When. Like how soon after this nomination?
KK: Oh. I wrote it way back in 1998.
SP: The song? But not the lyrics?
KK: What?
SP: Did you add these lyrics for the occasion?
KK: Well some of them, yes. I got a little help with the Spanish and also had some contribution from the lead singer, he’s a Cuban guy.
SP: Which one is it, Alexander [Fernández] or Luison [Medina]?
KK: Yeah, Alexander.
SP: Ok. So he added some lyrics to a tune you had previously written. KK: Yes and there’s other guy that is called…uh…uh…he helped me to translate into Spanish some of the words there…
SP: Not Luison but someone else?
KK: Cortes!
SP: I don’t know this name.
KK: I think he’s written on the record somewhere.
SP:Cortes?
KK: He’s called uh, Cortes, is his last name. His surname is…oh, I can’t remember…
SP: That’s ok. Is he a member of your band?
KK: No, no, he was just a friend.
SP: What do you do in the band, what’s your instrument?
KK: Saxophone player.
SP: Do you normally write tunes?
KK: Yeah, I do a lot of writing.
SP: Ok. 1998, what was this track originally called? Was it on your album in a different form, in a different version?
KK: Ehh, excuse me, one more time?
SP: Was this tune on your earlier album in a different version? Did it have a different name? Have you recorded this song before?
KK: Ehh, no, it was just during the uh, the first time we uh, played it was actually on a Norwegian TV show…
SP: Oh really?
KK: Which was hosted as an athlete's show. And Sotomayor was one of the guests.
SP: You’re kidding me. So she was a guest on the show, back then, and you wrote the song for her?
KK: Well, I think you misunderstand a little bit.
SP: Ok. I’m trying to get the picture…
KK: Are you talking about the…
SP: Sotomayor Mambo…
KK: …the minister of the…?
SP: Well, she’s the nominee for um…well, I don’t know who you wrote the song for. But over here, they’re playing this song for Sonia Sotomayor, the...
KK: OH!
SP: …nominee for Supreme Court Judge.
KK: Oh! Well, the song is, originally I wrote it for the high jumper, the Cuban high jumper—
SP: No kidding!
KK: …Javier Sotomayor.
SP:Laughs. Ok, well, I knew there was going to be some story here, I was trying to get to the bottom of it!
KK:Laughs. I was thinking a little bit about it because I thought it was a little bit strange that you uh…
SP: Why am I calling now for this song…
KK: Yeah, because, yeah, I mean, it was released in 2002-2003. I was thinking something maybe happened with Javier Sotomayor, or something like that. But I was thinking also about the new minister, or no, this is a court…
SP: Yes. Who’s the new minister that you mentioned?
KK: Yeah.
SP: Who is that?
KK: Didn’t you uh…?
SP: Oh you mean our, in the US.
KK: In the US, yeah.
SP: Well she’s the nominee for our Supreme Court, so she’s a judge.
KK: Yeah.
SP: Ok. All right. This, you didn’t re-record it with different lyrics or anything?
KK: No no no. This was actually, if you catch the lyrics, you know, it’s all about the high jumper. He’s still got the world record in high jump.
SP: There was a couple words in [the song] I didn’t get, that didn’t make sense to me, and now I’m understanding why.
Both:Laughter.
KK: Oh, yeah yeah yeah. So this is a kind of contribution then to uh, because he’s one of the most famous athletes from Cuba, and uh, since we were playing on this show and he was a guest, you know, and so I wrote this song as a tribute to him.
SP: How interesting!
KK: And actually, after he returned to Cuba, and some years later, he started his own salsa band, which he called Salsa Mayor.
SP: Oh, no wait a minute! No way! Because I know that band, but I didn’t know this guy’s name or that a guy in the band was an athlete…
KK: Oh really? Laughs. Yeah I think he’s got a record in high jump, you know, I think it’s like 2.45 meters.
SP: So he’s got records and records. KK: Yeah I think he’s still got it, he’s had that record for 15 years or something.
SP: Ok. And Salsa Mayor, is that the same band, with you know, Maikel Blanco? That band?
KK: No, no.
SP: Oh, it’s a different one.
KK: Yeah this is a Cuban band.
SP: Yeah, but this is a Cuban band I’m thinking of…
KK: Oh really? Oh maybe, maybe, I’m not sure actually. But he’s not playing in it, he’s just using his name on it in some way. You know, like a brand.
SP: All right. Now this took place in Norway, this was in Norway, he was a guest.
KK: Yes.
SP: And you guys are in Trondheim?
KK: Yes.
SP: And you have a couple Cuban guys who are based in Oslo, is that right?
KK: Yes, they are part of the band.
SP: All right, so they travel—how far is it from Oslo, to Trondheim?
KK: It’s about one hour with plane. We’re one of the leading salsa bands in Norway, so we are used to travel, so I mean, if you live in Oslo it’s not far actually. We don’t feel that way at all.
SP: It is. Ok. Well this is explaining a lot! Because I wondered how you got the song out so quickly. They started emailing it around to people. Various Latino policy organizations have mailed it around and asked people to play it in support of the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. Did you know that?
KK: I didn’t know. I’ve read [about the nomination] in the paper, yes.
SP: How do you feel about that?
KK: I think it’s really great. It’s about time that the Latin people are finally getting some important position, and especially a woman, because it’s such a macho, Latin people are so macho you know. A lot of man thing.
SP:Laughs. Interesting to get your Norwegian perspective. Have you spent time in the Latin American world yourself?
KK: Yeah, I’ve been a couple of times in Cuba.
SP: Yeah, I thought maybe, so, you have a lot closer ties to Cuba than we do, lucky for you.
KK: Yeah, we are. It’s no big deal for us to go there. Laughs. It’s more difficult to get from the States to Cuba actually than for us.
SP: Yeah, that’s definitely a fact, that’s a fact. Ok. So, the sonero on this song is Alexander Fernandez, and Luison plays conga, does he sing backup, does he also sing as a sonero?
KK: No, he’s the conga player. He sings on some of the songs but not that song, yeah. Alexander is our lead singer of that song.
SP: So, you didn’t make any effort to get this song out to US markets [after the nomination]? Like I didn’t know if you had any contacts over here that you know, maybe you sent the song over here to somebody and said, hey, check this out...
KK: No, no. It’s just a coincidence. There was just a review for an album [in 2004, by Rudy Mangual] in the Latin Beat music magazine in L.A. which is the biggest Latin newspaper about Latin music. That is actually the only contact we have had with the United States about anything.
SP: And no one’s contacted you now, since this happened? Am I the first person to call you about this, in relation to the judge?
KK: Definitely. If you can get us a tour over there, I’d be happy to.
SP:Laughs. Yeah, I wish I had that power. Sounds like a good band. I know there’s a hot Cuban music scene in Scandinavia. Michelle White, the timba specialist who covers it for Timba.com, she’s in Sweden.
KK: Yeah yeah, that’s true.
SP: We had the Afro Cuban All Stars here recently and Calixto Oviedo [who lives in Sweden] was with them…
KK: Yeah Yeah, I know him, very good friend. Oh, that’s nice. Alexander played a lot with Calixto.
So uh, all these [Cuban] guys. Alexander, usually he was a regular member of Manolito [Simonet] y su Trabuco…and he, what do you call it, when you find a Norwegian girl and he, what do you call it when you’re leaving, and you’re jumping off…you’re coming from an isolated country…
SP: You mean like…he married a girl there?
KK: Yeah, yeah, I mean he’s like the old Soviet people…
SP: Defecting.
KK: Yes, yes. He did that on a tour actually with Manolito and he stayed here in Norway. He’s been here ever after, but you know, both of these guys have Norwegian passports now so they can go wherever they like, and can go back to Cuba also.
SP: That’s nice for them.
The people who sent me this file of your song are from the National Institute for Latino Policy. I have a blog post about this, I’m going to supplement it now with our interview, because this information changes the picture considerably!
Both:Laughter.
KK: Yes. You know I was mentioning this to my girlfriend just for a joke, when we saw news about Sonia Sotomayor, I said, well I wrote a song about this!
SP: And maybe someone will start paying attention to it!
KK: Yeah maybe, maybe, you never know. Well, Spanish people, they will probably recognize there’s something with the lyrics that doesn’t fit.
SP: So what’s the word for high jumper?
KK: In Spanish it’s salto alto.
SP: Oh, that’s what he’s saying! That’s why! You know at the end of the song he says El Rey…
KK:El Rey del Salto Alto.
SP: And I thought, maybe that’s the singer’s nickname. I just couldn’t make sense of that.
KK: Yeah. That’s the king of high jumping.
SP: Got it. And are they saying Bienvenido, something?
KK: Yes, Bienvenido al Noruega…
SP: Al Noruega…[Welcome to Norway]
KK: Yeah, and this was broadcast on the TV show, so this was a like, a celebration for him. And he actually was dancing to our music on the Norwegian television.
SP: That's cool. What’s the name of that TV show, is it a well-known show?
KK: Well it was at that time, but it’s like 11 years ago since that was. But you know I think we still got a clip of it somewhere. In Norwegian it's called Ja Vi Elsker [translation: Yes We Love], the first line of the Norwegian national anthem. Maybe you can find it, it’s not more than 2 minutes or something. It’s very charming, and it’s very early in our career also. Because we didn’t have Cubans in the band at that time, so I was the lead singer, which I am not anymore! Laughs. I’m the saxophone player.
We talked to him [Javier Sotomayor] afterwards. He was surprised and he was extremely happy about this song. We sent it to him after we recorded and he really appreciated it, we got nice thanks from him.
SP: That’s pretty cool. You just started the band in that year, didn’t you?
KK: About the time, I think it was 1996.
SP: Ok. Well, that’s really cool, Kåre. I appreciate your time.
KK: That’s fine, I mean, it’s very funny, I mean it’s a small world so, it’s quite funny that you always find something here and there, with Myspace and YouTube and whatever. New music can pop up everywhere actually.
SP: That’s right, and I figured why not make it even smaller, I’ll just try and contact this guy and see what the story is!
KK:Laughs Thank you, that’s very nice of you.
SP: How do you describe the music you guys make, you call it Mambo Compañeros. It’s not exactly timba, right?
KK: I think, our style is more of a mix of traditional salsa and timba.
SP: Ok cool, what a pleasure speaking with you. Good luck, say hi to the guys in the band.
Kaare (pronounced akin to "kawr-uh") was nice as pie, and surprised to get my call, his FIRST interview with the US press about "Sotomayor," a tune he wrote in 1998.
That's right, 1998. When Cuban high-jumper Javier Sotomayor visited Norway. That sure makes sense out of some of the lyrics I didn't understand, and what seemed like a vacuna of information about Judge Sotomayor!
"Bienvenido a Noruega" = Welcome to Norway: Javier was there making an appearance on a Norwegian TV program when the band premiered this song for him on live television.
"El Rey del Salto Alto" = King of the High Jump: Words that end the song, I couldn't make sense of it, thinking maybe that was the nickname of the sonero?
But of course.
Kaare was packing up to go to a Mambo Compañeros rehearsal, and he says that although the band had no knowledge of the use of their song in a viral publicity campaign* stateside, he's delighted that it's being played to celebrate Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.
There is already a "Sotomayor Mambo." It's not really a mambo, it's modern Cuban salsa, and it's not from Da Boogie Down, South Bronx, where Judge Sotomayor hails from. It's from...Norway. Trondheim and Oslo to be precise, with a hand from Havana. 6 Norwegians and 2 Cuban expats make up the Mambo Compañeros, now test-marketing the cozy, anglicized name Mambo Companions.
This isn't a video, just an mp3 with still image. What's really interesting is that the National Institute for Latino Policy (that's US policy) has given it their endorsement, as you can see in the end credits. Reportedly, they were tipped to the song by Howard Jordán, host of WBAI's The Jordan Journal.
Now, the chorus is catchy enough, but as a national policy "response" to the right-wing attack media, it's a little thin. There's not much here about Judge Sotomayor's personal story or accomplishments, and I didn't hear one mention of her Nuyorican heritage. Cuba and the band, on the other hand, get numerous shoutouts. The Cubans in Compañeros are Alexander Fernández, who worked on some early albums of Cuban timba star Manolito Simonet, and Luison Medina, both active in various European bands. It's basically a party song, dedicated to the judge [Correction: See Update].
We'll see if the Mambo Compañeros' answer to Obamagirl goes viral. It's great to see musicians anywhere pay tribute to Sonia Sotomayor, who no doubt will continue to inspire her share of plenas, salsas, mambos, merengues and other ecstatic outbursts in song.
You gotta wonder, though, if Latin bands from the Bronx are not just a little bit peeved that NiLP, a think tank whose home address is Avenue of the Americas, New York City, has outsourced their national mambo policy to Norway.
I have a feeling I have entered a "no public comment" zone.
UPDATE added Sunday (3/5): SONS OF CUBA World Premiere
I went to the sold-out, world premiere Friday night of Sons of Cuba, a British-made film about the boys' boxing academy in Havana. Director Andrew Lang and editor Simon Rose said they had only just finished the film 3 days earlier. Lang completed film school training in Cuba in 2005 and had unprecedented access to the boarding academy, which accepts boys as young as 9 and trains them to become Olympic boxers.
I really liked the film, any movie that brings the sights and sounds of Cuba and its people closer is a joy. Music's role in the film was mostly in the soundtrack, which drew heavily on Cuban rap; the credits went by fast but I remember seeing one Eliseo Grenet tune, and some unfamiliar band names I take to be next gen hip hop. This was a good fit for the theme.
One boy, Santos, is nicknamed "The Singer," because he's always composing rap-like lyrics and songs on the spot. He was rather unhappy at boxing camp, and I kept thinking, they should transfer this kid to the conservatory farm system! I admit that one of my motives to see the film is that I imagine it must be somewhat similar to the life experienced by young musicians in Cuba, who are also taken from home at a young age. I think I am probably not too wrong in this.
The degree of love and bonding among the boys, and also between them and their nevertheless demanding coach, was an impressive fact. So was the close relationship most of these boys shared with their mothers. It was striking to me that the coach even impressed upon the boys, "your mother is the most important person in your life." That's far from the aggressive, "don't be a sissy," encoding of masculinity and rejection of all things feminine so typical in many or most societies when they are training men for a sport like boxing. Knowing Cuban culture from another angle, it was not hard for me to imagine these boys a little older, when they start having girlfriends, and thinking that any boy who loves his mother so much will surely end having a healthy respect for and attachment to women. That's not to say there is no "macho" element in Cuban culture (so I hear), but there's a certain approach to love, sensuality and pleasure, at least encoded in the music, that I find quite egalitarian. Let's just take as one example Mayito's song with Los Van Van, "Llevala a tu vacilon," where a guy is encouraged to take his girlfriend out to the parties with him, rather than leaving her at home. Let your girl have her fun, or you won't have a girl for very long.
It was hard to watch very young children undergo such grueling physical training. I couldn't help wondering if the obsession with weight, in particular, was not detrimental at that age, both physically and psychological. How do they allow for these kids to grow up, while maintaining a rigid weight class of say 32 kg? The hero, Christian, really had a gaunt, overexercised appearance. He sure as hell could fight though. Christian was an interesting character, because he's the son of a former Cuban Olympic and World Champion.
There was so much heart and emotion in this movie and so many tears: tears in victory, tears in defeat, tears when family stress intruded on school, tears when certain kids didn't make the team cut. I have never seen so many men (and boys) cry in two hours in my life! These men really love and comfort each other, even the rival coaches of the Havana and Matanzas academies, who do some hilarious trash talking in the beginning, but dissolve in a tearful embrace at the end. The Matanzas kid boxers had a reputation of being big, tough, yucca-eating farmers' sons who can punch you into next week, which made me think about the Matanzas stevedores who invented rumba, and Ignacio Piñeiro walking out to Matanzas for some good Afro-Congolese food and dancing in the song "Echale Salsita."
After the film, I stood up at one of the mics and asked the filmmakers if they had considered the film, among other things, as a portrait of Cuban masculinity; to my shock, really, Lang said this never occurred to him. Never occurred to him! Interesting. And he says he went to an all-male boarding school.
I think this has something to do with the fact that, like most outsiders making a movie about the Cuban system, they bring their own values to it somehow. That's not inappropiate. But Lang highlighted the historicity of the film being shot during the transition from Fidel to Raul. However, this event seemed like a bit of an anticlimax to me, both as experienced in real life, and as a dramatic element in the film. I guess he wouldn't be doing his job as a filmmaker not to position the film in its context and political moment in this way, but it really had no impact on the inherent drama of the film, which was all about the boys and their rival boxing teams. And, their dreams.
One point that the film made clearly was that all these people, children and adults, are coping with life in this system, the way anyone anywhere is forced to do. In particular, all these boys face a lot of pressure from their families to do well, so that they might have a chance to pull their families out of poverty. It's really not that different from the U.S., where low-wealth minorities are positioned to view sports and entertainment as aspirational paths.
It's a remarkable film, well worth seeing. If you love Cuba and her children, you'll probably be crying too by the end; I was. Beautiful moving images, too. These kids are unforgettable. Oh, and I can't wait for the followup films in 5 years, 10 years, etc. Like the Balseros docs, that would really be fascinating. Are you listening, Lang & friends? Well done, and keep us posted.
First 1000 kids receive free soccer balls, courtesy of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, according to an email from Railhawks President Brian Wellman. Tickets range from $20 Spectator, $27.50 Premium, and $35 Club seating. Children 3+ years of age require ticketing; under age 3 they can be admitted free with a parent and must share parent's seat.
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